By Mike Jackson.

This week I was in Bath to lead a Software Carpentry boot camp organised by one of our fellows, Alex Chartier. I was joined by Chris Woods from the University of Bristol, who made his debut as an instructor. Our Manchester fellow, Michael Croucher, also came along to help out.

We had 24 attendees, primarily from the UK Meterological Office, the Plymouth Marine Laboratory and from the universities of Bath, Bristol and Liverpool. They included researchers from a wide range of disciplines, such as oceanography, meterology, climate science, geosciences, environmental sciences and earth sciences, with a few from biology/bioinformatics, electrical engineering and computer science. About half of the attendees were PhD students, while the rest consisted of more senior researchers.

The attendees found the boot camp a useful experience, with particular praise for the helpers, who assist attendees with catching up should they fall behind. Another general comment was that these class room-based courses let you share space and discuss things with other people, an advantage they have over face-to-face or online teaching. For a detailed review of the boot camp's good points and bad points check out the feedback on the Software Carpentry blog.

One helper was David Martin, from the University of Dundee. He suggested that the content could be rolled out to A-level students too, give or take some restructuring!

For more news on our involvement in Software Carpentry or if you want to get involved as a helper, instructor or organiser, check out our Software Carpentry web page or contact us.